Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

Beyond

By the time that Darya had woken up in the practice area with the Rulin royal guards loosely hanging around while Treasa, Davanos, and Cansal watched Lianza training a couple more Royals, she had felt a difference. Not that the pain of the healing Treasa had done hadn't done a number to her and her body had ached when she sat up groggily, but she could feel the difference between the pain she had been in and this ache of memory.

After discussing what Treasa had discovered, along with the other's observations, Darya had thanked the young woman and walked back to her room with Cansal and Davanos, along with two Rulin warriors who stationed themselves at the door to the apartments she shared with her sister and Tisaso, even after Davanos and Cansal had left.

Darya had gone back to bed and slept through that day and the night, then woke up mid morning starving. There were two Rulin outside of her door when she had opened it and one of them reassured her they had sent for food when they heard her stirring, allowing her to return to her rooms and tackle the administration of her affairs that she could not manage while she was injured.

The Calamity was bleeding money being at port, and the only thing that had kept her savings safe had been the bonus that she'd earned from saving Akina and Cansal's ship from pirates, but that was nearly gone, with the cost of any resupply, her crew wages, and needing to feed them while they were down in the capitol. This far into the season and she was usually on a trade mission, making enough money to cover expenses and rebuild the savings that she had depleted to buy the Calamity in the first place.

She might last out the winter, but she would need to make money next year, leaving her with only the choice between venturing off to trade when most borders were closing because of the fear of war, and increased danger for anyone out on the open seas if something was coming, or signing the Calamity up for service like Tisaso had suggested a few times already.

Darya knew that while she was here and trying to contribute to everything, like she felt was her place, she had to play by the rules. Lianza had not been wrong when he had told her as much, but everything Darya had done in her life so far had been to avoid putting herself under someone else's authority. She'd have to report to Tisaso, or someone else under Tisaso.

She'd have to follow a game plan that wasn't her making.

It would be steady work. She would get a bonus as the ship's owner, the fees for it being in use for the Navy and a regular wage, not to mention her crew's wages would all be paid. But could she give up her freedom and autonomy? Would her crew want to?

Darya couldn't come to a conclusion on the matter, so she turned her attention to something she had control over. Herself and what she was going to do for the time being.

Going over Val's notes on the activities, trying to root out the issues throughout the city, reading the reports of arrests and where people were getting away. Reynald couldn't be everywhere all day, and as he had cleaned house, his trustworthy guard force was already stretched thin trying to protect the palace and patrol during the day.

Though Reynald knew the capitol, and had contacts out on the streets, he didn't have many. And as Darya began plotting the places he had been looking, she realized that the information she'd received from her crew and their contacts was slightly different. She was still forming her own alternative plan, standing over a map of the city stretched on a table in the office that Val and Tisaso sometimes worked out of after hours when the door opened, admitting Val, Tisaso, and Reynald, who were deep in conversation.

"We're only scratching the surface, but we're stretched too thin and with your forces being prepared for a possible invasion and reinforcing key points throughout the country, I don't see us making further progress." Reynald offered calmly, his eyes settling on Darya and the map before the other two had noticed her.